Tower Defense is a classic and loved genre and you have a lot of options, but here is why Blasted Thieves will be your favorite...

The Thieves...

* Rather than simply fighting one oncoming horde after another, you will find thieves intelligent enough to avoid your towers and take the safest path to the loot (on medium and difficult levels), forcing you to pay more attention to your strategy.* There are characters of chaos that don't take your loot but impede your strategy or distract your towers, so you may have to re-think things several times during the game.* Each thief has advantages and disadvantages against particular towers, all outlined in the game's almanac. The snowmen, for example, are resistant to most projectiles but succumb quickly to the laser or other heat weapons. Your success depends on knowing the capability of each tower and each of the thieves. This is opposed to simply setting up a bunch of ambiguous towers against approaching blobs and hoping for the best.* The thieves do much more than simply walk toward the loot. The pig, for example, comes out flying and once shot down (perhaps beyond your fortifications), walks the remainder of the way to your loot. The ninja hides occasionally and become invisible to the towers. The armadillo walks slowly, but when hit it turns into a ball and quickly rolls away. Don't let the mummies get too far or you'll find they turn to dust and a more tricky thief emerges. The worms travel safely underground and can only be fired upon when they come up occasionally. These and the rest of thieves are also described in the almanac.

The Towers...

* Along with the standard tower upgrade, there are several types of research for your towers (reminiscent of RTS) such as salt for the ability to kill ghost pirates, mysticism for extra strength against wizards and penetration of their shields, or strategy to give you control over which thief a tower should concentrate its firepower upon. This makes it a classic game with unique and complex potential.* You'll find 10 towers to choose from including things like: a flyswatter with short range but a very strong hit and splash damage to boot; the volcano which can burn up everything nearby but takes a while to erupt, so you'll have to slow the thieves down with your upgraded flatscreen TV; The fireworks stand, delivering thief-seeking rockets to quash your aerial foes.

The Battlefields...

* There is unique variety among the 25 battlefields in the 6 realms such as the pool table at The Winchester, across stretches of water in Magnanakaw River, around the rocky protections of Kamen Highlands, out on the soccer field at Estadio Centenario and amid the stone fortress of Umkringdur Castle. There are also some variations in gameplay such as in Rieti where you must manually send the waves and defeat them in a certain amount of time, Sendirian Valley where you are only allowed one tower at a time, or Suburbia where the loot moves with every wave of thieves.

The Gameplay...

* Blasted Thieves eschews the drag and drop style that has invaded the genre and replaces it with a simple and intuitive tap and choose method that allows better accuracy and speed at the same time as clearing clutter from the precious little room on your screen.* There are three difficulty levels and three modes to choose from: Campaign mode, which leads you through all of the battlefields, unlocking more towers and research with each success; Casual mode, which lets you play the battlefields in any order and you get to decide what gets unlocked when you win; and Endless mode, where you can see how long you would really last.